National Adult Literacy Database

Canada's system of education and skills remains one of the best in the world, but it needs to do much better at matching what Canadians learn to evolving labour market needs. Canada ranks second only to Finland among 16 developed countries in The Conference Board of Canada's Education and Skills report card.

Northern Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area will be hubs of construction activity over the next few years, drawing in workers from outside Ontario's regions to meet the growing demand for skilled trades. A newly released labour market forecast from the Construction Sector Council says requirements diverge across Ontario, depending on the timing and scale of major projects, but that overall, the industry may need to recruit about 40,000 workers from outside the province.

If you're aware of an exemplary or innovative technology product, project or service that benefits the field of adult literacy and essential skills in Canada, the National Adult Literacy Database (NALD) would like to hear about it.

The Native Women's Resource Centre of Toronto (NWRCT) is hosting the Minaake Awards, Toronto's first Aboriginal Women and Youth Community Achievement Awards, on April 10, 2013. NWRCT is an award-winning charity that offers life-enhancing resources, cultural ceremonies and teachings, and skill development programs to Aboriginal women and their children.

CLO will be circulating 'Literacy: Why It Matters' to all Ontario MPs and MPPs, with an accompanying letter to explain the importance of the Labour Market Agreement to literacy programming.

Jan Chappel, Senior Technical Specialist at the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, will speak at two upcoming conferences, on the topics of workplace bullying, vulnerable workers and evaluating literature and research data.

The new Ontario government has created a new Northern cabinet committee that will address the complex needs of Northern Ontario, including job creation, revitalizing transportation infrastructure and improving vital access to the Ring of Fire. Premier Wynne and her team are also looking at ways to improve access to health care and education in the region.

Defined in the simplest terms, a spelling bee is a competition in which individuals are asked how to spell a variety of words. Yet to the people who organized and participated in a recent event at Blossom Park Educational Centre in Woodstock, Ontario, it was considerably more.